Best way to learn the starting playable hand ranks

[chrome_gnome]

I've just recently gotten serious about learning to play hold 'em after playing mainly blackjack at the casinos for several years. I have read Phil Hellmuth's "Play Poker Like the Pros" book and just recently picked up the Sklansky/Malmuth book after getting a ton of good recomendations.

I was taught how to play hold 'em and given the following four rules of thumb to guide my play and it has been what I have been playing with thus far. I've got a basic grasp of the game slang terms and can play a decent game, probably on the tight side though.

Only play the following hands to start:
(1) 8+ wired (8-8, 9-9 etc)
(2) Jacks or better suited sets (Q-J, K-Q, A-K, etc)
(3) Face cards (including aces) and tens suited
(4) Offsuit AK, AQ, AJ and KQ

After picking up the new Hold 'em poker for advanced players book I am trying to decide upon a course of action to learn the proper hand ranking to allow me to play more hands and know when to play them. The chart in the book is no where near as easy to memorize as say a Blackjack Basic Strategy chart so I want to put a little thought into how to go about this.

The ideas I have at the moment are just memorizing it in blocks like the paired groups first, then set of A-x cards then K-x and so on until I have the whole thing digested. This method is similar to how I memorized the blackjack charts and it wasn't too bad. I spent about a day or two on each section until I could recite it forward, backwards and jumbled up.

The next idea I had was flashcards. If I made a set of flashcards with the card pics on the front instead of the AK it would serve to help my hand recognition skills at the same time as my "what rank are these cards" skills. I think this option could help prevent the trouble some folks have in going from memorizing QJs group 3 and QJo group 5 to actually seeing a queen of spades paired with a jack of spades and knowing what do.

The last option I thought of is based partly on what I already know about the game strategy from the simple four rules of thumb and partly from the front section of the book where it says that experts no longer should think of the cards by the group number. If the end result we are trying to achieve is to not use the groups would it be better to use the chart in the book to come up with rules of thumb for groups? These rules of thumb would not be strict about whether 9-8s is a group 4 or 5 but rather that if I take my basic rules from above and I want to loosen them up based on the game im sitting in on I should add suited connectors first and then small pairs next and so on. It is easier by a large margin to learn generalities than a bunch of crossindexed numbers.

I am looking for advice from some brick and morter players on what they think. Am I better off generalizing the table in rules of thumb for normal, tight and loose? Is it better to use flashcards to just learn the details?

I guess part of what I am wondering is since the hold'em is not as mathematically determinate as say blackjack is there a real world value in using such a strict system or is it better to use rules of thumb that get the bulk of details to match the chart but may be off in a couple places. Like my 4 rules from above seem to match the chart pretty well but they miss J9, T9 and 98 suited being included in a "normal" game.

Ideas and thoughts...?

[Eihli]

I think there's way to many "it depends" to follow a strict table.

[crockpot]

i tried to make a sort of spinoff of the sklansky ranks for my website's starting out in hold 'em page. basically my goal is to hammer into new player's heads to avoid dominated hands when the pot has been raised by a decent player. i think that is the most important thing to remember when you are starting out.

[Sloth]

your rules play a little tighter then S&M from late and a few that you shouldn't play from early.

What I did was indead of memorizing the exact groupings is remember the "types" of hands that can be played from the different positions and WHY.

Newbies I totally recomend playing tighter in late position, because the reason some of those hand can be played is positional, and newbies don't understand how to use position to maximize their benifit, and if they hit top pair of an 8, have a hard time releasing it in a lot of situations it should be.

"types" of hands are, Big pairs, Medium Pairs, Small Pairs, Big Suited Connectors, etc.

[Mangatang]

I've created an Excel spreadsheet that allows you to practice your preflop play. It's advice is based on S&M's HPFAP. It takes into consideration: your cards, your position, number of players that have limped/raised to you, and the table texture (loose/passive, tight/aggressive).

The spreadsheet plays just like at the table. It shows you a situation, and you choose your play. It then tells you if you're correct or not. If not, a brief explanation of the correct play pops up.

I've found that after "playing" the spreadsheet for a while, the correct plays are easily remembered. It's like using flash cards to study for a test. Even if you're already a solid player, it's nice to go back and practice every once in a while. It's like re-aligning your tires every so many miles.

If anyone is interested the spreadsheet, PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy. The spreadsheet contains macros, so if you're worried about that sort of thing, never mind.

[chrome_gnome]

Well I have been reading through the S&M chart and trying to distill it into about 20 things I can remember with rules of thumb phrases easily. I realize this is not taking advantage of every hand I could play and is shifting around a few other hands a little but it lightens the load mentally. I want to have a set of guidelines that are quick and easy to remember at a real table and that still allow me to play a decent game tight/loose when needed based on position and player reads. Below is what I came up with. I have already memorized the 22 rules and can shift between the groups pretty quick playing against the computer in simulation rather than with some downloaded online game. I think this may be a good way to start and I can adjust as I learn more about specific plays and when to make exceptions to the rules. Using these rules of thumb my mind is free from trying to remember exact hand by hand details that would probably get me into more trouble now than they are worth.


Mentally I start with a group four set of hands and shift tighter or looser as needed. If I get lost when trying to remember what the play is for wired 7's in a loose game I just have to recenter myself on the normal rules for a group 4 and then work my way around. I drew the rules in a semi-circle with the rules for 4 in the top middle and the rules for 3, 2 & 1 going around and down to my left for tighter play and for 5 and 6 around and down to my right for looser play. I'm a mechanical engineer by day and so I am a very visual person who learned all sorts of pneumonic devices in college to remember all sorts of esoteric charts and formulas for the cooling rates of carbon steel to the flowrates of fluid through a pipe. This semi-circle sketch lets me visualize in my mind when I get stuck and makes it pretty easy to "see" my way from a neutral set of hands to what I need. I use terms that make sense to me like Face 10's which includes J10,Q10,K10 & A10. Its easier to just call them face cards even though one is an ace. Everyone would no doubt come up with different ways of referring to things that best makes sense to them using game slang or other terms. I use phrases that kind of flow to me. I'm not claiming this is the right way but it seems to cover the bases pretty well.

Take a look at the 20 rules I came up with, compare it with the chart from S&M's HePFAP book. I practice by just reciting them to myself silently as I play word for word as you see them. I figure after a few weeks of playing against Wilson I won't even be having to recite them to myself except in rare cases.

Normal Hand Set (4)
* 8's or better wired
* J's or better suited
* Face-10's suited [includes Ace]
* Offsuits AK,AQ,AJ and KQ

Tighter Play (3)
* 9's or better wired
* J's or better suited
* Offsuit AK,AQ

Cautious Play (2)
* 10's or better wired
* Big Slick either way (AK suited or offsuited)
* AQ,AJ,KQ suited

Big 5 Play (1)
* J's or better wired
* Big Slick suited

Going around the other way on my semi-circle

Looser Play (5)
* 7's or better wired
* J's or better either way
* Face-10's suited
* 5 or better suited connectors
* A2-A9 suited

Open Play (6+)
* 5's or better wired
* J's or better either way
* Face-10's either way
* 5 or better suited connectors
* A2-A9 suited

The rules I think cover the chart in a pretty accurate fashion except the looser play gets the more plays I'm missing but I probably should never being playing that loose at my level. A couple of observations about my rules that show me a bigger picture.

My rules only tend to change one major thing with each shift which makes remembering the little details easier. As I move around my circle I add one set of of cards or remove a set of cards with each shift. I also adjust the allowed wired sets by 1 with each step, except for the loosest play which adjust by 2.

For example when tighting up from (4) to (3) you stop playing the Face-10's and raise the wired ranks played by one level to 9's. The offset changes as well but that is just a small memory thing. The same is true when playing looser. I start with the rules for (4) and add 5's or higher suited connectors. The allowed wired rank changes by 1 and I alter the J's or better phrase to reflect the looser hands.

This may or may not help some people trying to learn the hands in the beginning. I found it helpful to sit and figure out a system to remember it by because it helps me to keep seeing the big picture. Too often, as in blackjack, people strive to memorize the chart but don't know why the chart is saying what it is which limits them when it comes to card counting. Spending the time working out these rules of thumb I can see the trend of what changes as you tighten up or loosen up because I had to compress what changed into a couple of phrases for each shift. Sure some of the one hand exceptions get moved around or missed but overall I think I gain more feel for what is changing as I shift. Kind of a forest for the tress sort of thing.

I noted the following positional shifts that I will try to follow to start as well.

Early (4)
Early w/ raise to my right (2)
Mid (5)
Late (6)
Late with call or raise to my right (3)

I am hoping that by starting with this simplified system I can better read and understand what S&M are trying to explain to me in the book. So far the book has great insights with lots of specific examples but when you are trying to learn it can be tough to have lots of exceptions to the rules shown to you to soon. With my rules of thumb I hope I can hang in there while the book explains the hows and whys of without forcing to me refer back the chart in the front all the time.

Mind you these are rules of thumb and I fully expect to dig into the specific plays and positional nuances as I go. I just needed a quick way to jump in and understand the system now. So what do you all think? Are these rules a step in the right direction or are they going to cause me alot of grief later on?

[Myrtle]

IF you are talking about FLHE, and IF you play online, try this.........

Take the starting hand/position play chart from Lou Kreiger's book and make a blown up copy of it. Color the any-position hands green: the mid-late position hands pink and the late-only positon hands yellow. You will now have an easy-to-read, color-coordinated chart.

Before you take action on EVERY HAND, think about what the correct action is. Then, refer to the chart. Was your intended action correct according to the chart? If so, great. If not, why not?

After a few thousand hands, this learning process should become 2nd nature to you, and your new "learned" correct actions will now have become instinctual.

When you take the correct action one hundred times in a row, you are getting there!

In my case, after a few years of doing this, it has become virtually "automatic" and I firmly believe that it has helped my B&M FLHE considerably.

Again, this is for FL only....NL & PL are entirely different animals.

[TheRake]

Actually there is a book called "Get the edge at LLTH" by Biil Burton that has starting hands color coded by position right on the inside of the front cover. I bought this book when I 1st started playing and actually liked it a little better than Lee Jones book. It was less expensive too..Maybe $12-$15 on amazon (sorry can't remeber exactly). It is actually a pretty good read with lots of useful information.

[Myrtle]

Oops......tyvm for reminding me!!!

Bill's chart is easier to use just as it sits in his book. And, yes indeed, it is an excellent book!

He's going to kill me for not mentioning it in my first post, especially given his acknowledgement given to me in both the forward and in the book itself.

Yikes.....am I in deep doo-doo!!

[Moyer]

http://www.annabelles-treasures.com/poker/handcats.jpg